In this article, we will briefly discuss an understanding of how the United States Codes are structured. Articles have been published on the same under different categories of this website.
The United States Codes are also shortly referred to as U.S., Code, U.S.C., or simply put USC as it is the representative codification of the general and permanent statutes of the USA. The US Codes is the only supreme authority which also makes it admissible in the Court of law as a “legal evidence”. “If a dispute arises as to the accuracy or completeness of the codification of an unenacted title, the courts will turn to the language in the United States Statutes at Large. In case of a conflict between the text of the Statutes at Large and the text of a provision of the United States Code that has not been enacted as positive law, the text of the Statutes at Large takes precedence.”[1]
The authorization of the US Codes comes from its enactment through the legislative process. “For example, the United States Code omitted 12 U.S.C. § 92. for decades, because it was thought to have been repealed.”[2] However, in a 1993 United States Supreme Court case,[3] it held that Section 92 was actually in fact valid. The US Codes are largely cited by the US Supreme Court and other federal courts as well.
How the Codes are split and referred to:
The Code is divided into 53 Titles. They deal with broad, logically organized areas of legislation. Titles may optionally be divided into subtitles, parts, subparts, chapters, and subchapters. All titles have sections (represented by a §) as their basic coherent units, and sections are numbered sequentially across the entire title without regard to the previously mentioned divisions of titles. “Sections are often divided into (from largest to smallest) subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, clauses, subclauses, items, and subitems.”[4]
Here the word “Title” is similar to Volume. “In addition to the sections themselves, the Code includes statutory provisions set out as statutory notes, the Constitution, several sets of Federal court rules, and certain Presidential documents, such as Executive orders, determinations, notices, and proclamations, that implement or relate to statutory provisions in the Code. The Code does not include treaties, agency regulations, State or District of Columbia laws and most Acts are temporary or special. The Code also contains editorially created source credits, notes, and tables that provide information about the source of Code sections, their arrangement, the references they contain, and their history.”[5]
Few Examples:
- Public Law 108-347 set out under 22 U.S.C. 5811,
- Section 401 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 601),
- Civil Rights Act 1964 is actually coded in Title 42 of the United States Codes,
- 12 U.S. Code § 92 – Acting as an insurance agent or broker,[6]
TITLES:
The following Titles have been enacted on basis of positive law,[7]
| TITLE 1[8] | General Provisions |
| TITLE 2[9] | The Congress |
| TITLE 3[10] | The President |
| TITLE 4[11] | Flag, and Seal, Seat of Government, and the States |
| TITLE 5 | Government Organization and Employees |
| TITLE 6 | Domestic Security |
| TITLE 7 | Agriculture |
| TITLE 8 | Aliens and Nationality |
| TITLE 9 | Arbitration |
| TITLE 10 | Armed Forces |
| TITLE 11 | Bankruptcy |
| TITLE 12 | Banks and Banking |
| TITLE 13 | Census |
| TITLE 14 | Coast Guard |
| TITLE 15 | Commerce and Trade |
| TITLE 16 | Conservation |
| TITLE 17 | Copyrights |
| TITLE 18 | Crimes and Criminal Procedure |
| TITLE 19 | Customs Duties |
| TITLE 20 | Education |
| TITLE 21 | Food and Drugs |
| TITLE 22 | Foreign Relations and Intercourse |
| TITLE 23 | Highways |
| TITLE 24 | Hospitals and Asylums |
| TITLE 25 | Indians |
| TITLE 26 | Internal Revenue Code |
| TITLE 27 | Intoxicating Liquors |
| TITLE 28 | Judiciary and Judicial Procedure |
| TITLE 29 | Labor |
| TITLE 30 | Mineral Lands and Mining |
| TITLE 31 | Money and Finance |
| TITLE 32 | National Guard |
| TITLE 33 | Navigating and Navigable Waters |
| TITLE 34 | Crime Control and Law Enforcement |
| TITLE 35 | Patents |
| TITLE 36 | Patriotic Societies and Observances |
| TITLE 37 | Pay and allowances of the Uniformed Services |
| TITLE 38 | Veterans’ Benefits |
| TITLE 39 | Postal Services |
| TITLE 40 | Public Buildings, Properties, and Works |
| TITLE 41 | Public Contracts |
| TITLE 42 | The Public Health and Welfare |
| TITLE 43 | Public Lands |
| TITLE 44 | Public Printing and Documents |
| TITLE 45 | Railroads |
| TITLE 46 | Shipping |
| TITLE 47 | Telecommunications |
| TITLE 48 | Territories and Insular Possessions |
| TITLE 49 | Transportation |
| TITLE 50 | War and National Defense |
| TITLE 51 | National and Commercial Space Programs |
| TITLE 52 | Voting and Elections |
| TITLE 53 | Reserved |
| TITLE 54 | National Park Service and Related Programs |
Conclusion: The laws declared in the United States Codes are the findings of hundred years of legislation. The Codes have especially gone through various changes, enactments, amendments and with years even the drafting and principles have transformed too. The same can be reflected in the Codes.
Also Read: https://laymanlitigation.com/usa-codes-on-infrinmgnment-of-intellectual-property-laws
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Code [2] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/92 [3] National Bank of Oregon v. Independent Insurance Agents of America, Inc., U.S. 439, 440 (1993). [4] https://www.fjc.gov/content/overview-6 [5] https://uscode.house.gov/detailed_guide.xhtml [6] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/92 [7] https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/uscode [8] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/1/chapter-1 [9] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/chapter-2 [10] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/chapter-3
[11] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/chapter-4
